STEPHIE'S BEADS AND BAUBLES

I have been struggling for a long time to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I have raised four wonderful kids, and have seven equally wonderful grandkids . I am married to the same man for 33 years, father and grandfather of above kids and he really is the love of my life and my best friend.

That part of my life is as good as it gets.

We have a cute little cottage in a small southern town in Texas and we are working to make it cute and more modern as it is 90 years old. My husband has a good job and all the overtime he wants so we are working hard to fix the house and get out of debt over the next few years.

I have been a creative person my entire life. The jewelry started about 26 or 27 years ago. I had years I created more than others, and in the last five or six, I really started working hard on building a business and creating pretty things.

For a while my sales were doing good. I was making some money every month and during the holidays a few hundred a month and I thought it would grow from there.

Not the case.

This year I have had seven sales. A few of those were embroidery kits I listed along with a bunch of last years sales as well.

I have been purchasing some of the prettiest and most interesting materials and making some of the best pieces I have ever made and my sales are falling down to pretty much nothing.

Etsy has changed. Too many sellers selling the same thing. You can not even be sure  your listings will be seen as the amount of listings do not match the pages shown, they show only 250 pages of listings, even if there are three times that many items in that category.

I am going to make one huge change.

I am letting all my listings expire, and then I plan to work with my beloved sequins and seed beads. They are my true passion but both my husband and I had talked about it and figured I should work on stuff that would sell easier.

Once all the listings are gone, I will close that store and rebrand myself. New  name, a logo and new Etsy shop and possibly a new blog, but I will probably just keep this one as my beading blog as I am established here. It is home now.

Well, I am done with working so hard, making so many items I am so proud of , just to have them not sell. We are still going to do some of the stain glass jewelry and some unique one of a kind pieces, later, after our kitchen reno is done,  but I am going to do some unique and interesting sequin projects , ornaments, bridal stuff and I am really excited to make a belly dancing top. Fancy bra basicly that can be worn for belly dancing. Lots of beads and sequins. I hope to make more of them, but will start with one !!

I am going to be putting a 20 percent off sign on my store tonight. NO limit, all you want ot buy for 20 percent off. Whatever does not sell by its expiration date will be left unlisted. A bunch will be expiring in the next week and then on a regular basis through Aug and Sept.

I am not sure if the seed beads and sequins are what I am supposed to do, but I do know until I figure it out, I love to work with them and will have fun and be happy while I figure out what it is I am supposed to do . I just know I am not having fun any more and I want to  have fun and enjoy creating again.

So, if you check out my store, I will have the coupon code at the top of the page by sometime tonight, Wed July 22 so it will be there tomorrow am.  I am  heading over to do that after I post this .

I hope to dazzle you soon with really pretty seed bead and sequin projects like the ones above, a piece I made for one of our grandaughters. A princess crown and one of the angels I love to make for baby gifts, this one was for a friends new grandaughter several years ago.  So, stay tuned for that and thanks so much for stopping by !!!

Stephie